Running the tyrannofex

[infornography]

Umm, Tfex uses the same kit as Tervigon...

Anyway, I have used a pair of tyrannofexes for a while. They are VERY hard to kill, but they are not really all that threatening. Once my opponents realized that they could relatively safely ignore the big lumbering beast he just became a drain on my points.

I will say, those first couple fights before they stopped paying him attention, he tanked for my army like nothing else could, but that just didn't last. If you are afraid of his fairly mediocre firepower then you can tarpit him with grots or boys or termagants or guardsmen or cultists, etc. He kills two a turn so there isn't much risk of him ever getting free from that fight. You can effectively remove him from the game for a third his points or less.

He just costs WAY too much for what he brings to the fight. Believe me, I would LOVE for him to be worth his points considering I have two of them built and ready to go, but he just isn't. Not by a long shot.

[grarik]

The times I have run mine it has been a fairly major fire magnet. I run mine with a rupture cannon, and my opponents tended to treat it as much bigger a threat than it really was. not saying it hasn't performed well either, it's best performance was 5 bikes and an attack bike in 1 shooting phase, followed by half of another bike squad through overwatch. when the dice like you, the thing is terrifying, but don't expect those kind of results often

[coredump]

The amount of firepower the Tfex puts out, is just not worth 250pts.

But that isn't the reason you take one.

His firepower *does* become worthwhile is some specific situations, such as taking out those 2+ cover save models shrouded in ruins, or that Beastpack with Invisibility. In the 6E meta, it is important to have some method of denying cover saves... that is partly why Hive Guard are so useful; but Tfexes even ignore area terrain benefits, or models touching the ADL, etc.

But still, too situational to really merit the points.

At first, opponents will pour fire into one, and that is helpful because he tanks for the rest of your army. But eventually they learn.

And that is when you can start using him as a highly resilient denial unit. Spend 4-5 turns moving across the board, killing things in cover, and getting mostly ignored by your opponent. Then plop him down on an enemy objective. Since your opponent 'got smarter' and started ignoring the Tfex, he now has to contend with a 4-6 wound, T6, 2+ save TMC contesting one of his 'safe' objectives.
This is the same reason why the Tau Riptide is so useful. Riptide also isn't all that shooty, but is very resilient. (Riptide plays this role better than the Tfex, but the same relative role.)

As for getting tarpitted.... I never have a problem with getting my units tarpitted. I have so many units marching across the board together that A) it is hard to get past everything to get to the Tfex, B) There are plenty of units around to counter assault and kill whatever is trying to tarpit the Tfex, and C) Wait... he is going to move his units *closer* to my Nids??? cool...

[infornography]

I suppose if you are playing a foot slogging army instead of reserve heavy the tarpitting isn't as big a problem. Though him camping an objective isn't all that great either, all of his guns except the rupture cannon max out at around 18". Not hard to just avoid that. In my experience a good opponent just gives up whatever objective you are taking from him in force and moves to other ones. Very rarely have I had an opponent so committed to an objective that he stubbornly stays put with little to no hope of owning it at the end of the match.

[scrotatohead]

A T-Fex operating alone is N Wful point sink. But 'bids work best when supporting each other. A T-Fex rolling forward in conjunction with a Tervigon and a brood or two of 'gangs provides target prioritization issues, transport popping in close combat, the ability to template back rows of target units so you don't increase your assault distance, and extra punch against high toughness targets. Against Tau you can use it to template and assUlt unit A while the gants assault unit B, reducing their ridiculous supporting overwatch capacity.

[arnestig]

Jul 19, 2013 15:30:54 GMT scrotatohead said:

A T-Fex operating alone is N Wful point sink. But 'bids work best when supporting each other. A T-Fex rolling forward in conjunction with a Tervigon and a brood or two of 'gangs provides target prioritization issues, transport popping in close combat, the ability to template back rows of target units so you don't increase your assault distance, and extra punch against high toughness targets. Against Tau you can use it to template and assUlt unit A while the gants assault unit B, reducing their ridiculous supporting overwatch capacity.

Flaming the back of a unit will still pull wounds / models closest to you. So you will still have a larger assault distance.

[coredump]

I may not be expaining this well.

There is no 'camping' of an objective, you are *taking* one of theirs. And it isn't in force, it is a single Tfex.

You spend 3-4 turns moving forward... Tfex, Hguard, couple of tervs, flyrant or two, devilguants drop down, maybe some yealers pop out... and of course gaunts... This is not some Deathstar clump, they are just moving forward and can offer each other support if needed.

Around turn 4-5, the Tfex heads to the target objective. If there is a token force (gretchin, cultists, etc) It can probably handle it on its own, if there are a lot of enemy, bring friends. If the enemy is 'smart', they have ignored the tfex, and he now has 1-2 turns to deal with a 6W 6T 2+ save TMC in order to keep that objective.

Any tarpit unit, has to get past acid spray, flyrants, biovores, etc just to make contact, and then deal with gaunts and Tervs to try and stay there.

[Jabberwocky]

I'd 100% be running my Tfex if the current model hadn't made my conversion obsolete.

being tarpitted is NOT a problem. It gives a free assault move to your units behind, stops you worrying about assaulting into cover, etc.

He can spray and blast across vehicles to hit surrounding infantry then assault and smash vehicles, which mostly don't run AP2 anyway nowadays.

[infornography]

That is an interesting idea. It might work out. I more suspect that the hit that the list will take in capability to remove problems from the field would end up costing more than that would be worth, but it might work better than just using him as a slightly mobile firebase. I suspect though that they would just leave him as a low priority until all the rest of your heavy hitters are dealt with and then just whittle him down with either weight of fire or with a several high quality attacks such as meltas or las cannons.

If you are committed to running the big t-fex though, might be worth a shot.

[coredump]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't think it is worth 250pts. But I think if you are careful with how you play it, and conciously work all of its advantages, you can get 250pts of 'value' out of it.

Compare to the Terv, which is pretty easy to get its 200-235 pts of value.

skipping cover saves can be really useful...

[Squire]

I quite like the idea of a T-fex pushing up to an enemy objective if the tyranid player is mindful of the risk of tarpitting and has ways to deal with that (gaunt bubble wrap, pre-emptive thinning out of enemy infantry with shooting etc.). The way coredump suggests sounds like the best way to use the T-fex. The onus is the on the nid player to avoid being tarpitted, so if you have the tactical nous to avoid that then the resilience of it will give the opponent a problem.

As with many of our units if you can include something like the T-fex into an otherwise competitive list you will still have a good army that wins games. Just find the right balance to be competitive within your gaming group and make sure stuff like T-fex, warriors, lictors etc. don't occupy too much of your list

[gigasnail]

Where exactly am i finding 250 points to put a tfex in?

[Squire]

Jul 19, 2013 23:38:27 GMT gigasnail said:

Where exactly am i finding 250 points to put a tfex in?

Maybe take a 1500 point competitive list and add a tyrannofex plus two more hive guard to make an 1850 list? I don't know. When you judge a T-fex against better units in the codex from a competitive point of view then there isn't a place for it. That isn't an insightful contribution, it's pretty much an established fact that everyone is aware of

Not everybody plays 40k for the tournament scene though. I suspect a lot of people will choose an army for the general look, fluff and playstyle, then have in mind certain units they'd like to model, paint and field before they write an army list. There's more to the hobby than winning tournaments. How many people see 40k for the very first time, rub their hands with glee and think 'Here's a game I can beat people at!'?

I don't think we're talking about competitive tournament play here. The discussion is based around how to make the most of a T-fex if that's what you want to field. Reducing the discussion to 'they're bad, never use them' isn't remotely helpful and ignores the fact that lots of games are played somewhere between competitive and friendly levels.

[gigasnail]

i don't play tournements, but i do play to kick the snot out of whomever i'm playing. if you're making unit choices on 'it looks cool' instead of how effective it is, then why are we having a tactics discussion on how to use anything? use it because it looks cool and have fun. no one's disputing that it's a cool model (well, some folks actually did hate it with a passion when it came out, but i was kind of fond of it, fond enough where my tervigons are magnetized to change to a tfex if they suddenly stopped sucking), and no one cares what you're playing with when it's understood it's a fluffy game.

continuing to argue 'hey, it's not so bad' when it clearly is second tier isn't particularly insightful, either.

[glassiya]

Riptide also isn't all that shooty, but is very resilient.

just one shot from overcharged pulse cannon is enough to remove completely healthly carnifex/tyrant. And don't make me start about Ion one.

Back to the topic: indeed, Tyrannofex doesn't have the same firepower as Landraider. But at least he won't explode from the very first melta in his face. I ran him with RC, and I liked it. Really. The problem was that my list already was full of overpriced models, and it was just too much. So I kept OOE in, and dropped T-fexxy. No questions as for who's better using its 260 points there, but I just love my little carni. Can't do anything about it.

Putting t-fex in the list is not outright bad. Just be prepared, that you'll have to compensate it in other, more powerful and cost-effecient units, and use all their synergy and your strategy as best as you can. This is gonna be tough.